Method of attaching flat, in particular plate-like, components to a textile web

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method of arranging flat plate-like components at a prepared arrangement location within a textile web of a textile machine. The flat plate-like components are connected by a flexible carrier at a fixed distance from each other so as to form a linear arrangement. The method comprises the steps of providing the linear arrangement of flat plate-like components to a thread tying location on a textile machine along a longitudinal axis, working the flexible carrier into the textile web so that part of the carrier emerges from the prepared arrangement location of the textile web in a free-floating manner and the plate is positioned at a distance upstream of the thread tying location on the textile machine. The floating carrier is then pulled so that the plate passes through the thread tying location of the textile machine and is placed at the prepared arrangement location within the textile web. The plate is then secured in the prepared arrangement location in the textile web by tying the prepared arrangement location.

BACKGROUND

The invention is directed to a method of arranging flat plate-likecomponents at a prepared arrangement location in a textile web of atextile machine. It is important to be able to fix plate-like structuralcomponent parts at determined locations on a textile web. Thesestructural component parts will be referred to simply as "small plates"hereinafter.

For instance, to help in achieving an elegant fold configuration in acurtain, it is useful to arrange small stiffening rods, as they arecalled, in the top edge region and bottom edge region of the curtain.Carrying strips provided with pockets are advisably used for thispurpose, these carrying strips being fastened at the edge of thecurtain. Such carrying strips are first produced on a weaving machine orloom. The stiffening rods are then inserted into the pockets. Since itis difficult to automate this process, this insertion is performedmanually, which is tedious and time-consuming.

Another important application for such methods has to do with a securitysystem for self-serve merchandise. Generally, for this purpose, labelswith attached triggers are fastened to the merchandise. When the labeledmerchandise comes in proximity to detectors which are placed within theexit area of sales locations, an alarm is triggered unless the alarmtrigger in the label has been disabled beforehand. In this connection,it has already been suggested (DE-GM 93 08 632.6) to make label stripswith two layers or plies so as to form pockets. These pockets have sidepockets opening toward one longitudinal edge of the strip; the alarmtrigger must be inserted therein in a cumbersome manner. After they areproduced by weaving, the openings of the filled pockets are closed byseams or the like.

The object of the invention is to develop a method of the type mentionedin the preamble which permits a quick, easily automated production of atextile web to be provided with small plates. This object is met inaccordance with the invention by the steps given in the characterizingpart of claim 1. The particular significance of these steps will bedescribed hereinafter.

The method according to the invention includes, first, a precursorprocess in which a line forming a linear arrangement of small plates isproduced. This line will be referred to hereinafter simply as "plateline". This is effected in that the small plates are connected at adefined, fixed distance from one another with at least one flexiblecarrier. In so doing, the small plates can alternate with connectionpieces of the carrier material to form the plate line. In this case, itis also possible to produce the entire plate line in one piece. Analternative would be to start with an already finished continuous stripat which the carriers are fixed in place at a defined distance from oneanother.

This precursor process is followed by a main process which is effectedin its entirety on the machine used for producing the textile web. Thismachine will be referred to hereinafter simply as "textile machine". Thespecial character of the method according to the invention consists inthat the plate line is allowed to work as a thread element in thetextile machine along with the other thread elements of the textile web.When the textile machine used is a weaving loom, the usual threadelements such as warp threads and weft threads are woven with the plateline, namely, by means of the method steps indicated in thecharacterizing part of claim 1. In general, it is sufficient to form thetextile web with one ply and to tie in the small plates to be attachedthereto via their carriers with the thread elements of the textile web.A preferred production method is effected in that the textile web isconstructed, at least in some areas, so as to have two plies in the formof pockets as is indicated more fully in claim 5.

Further advantages and steps of the invention are given in the furthersubclaims, the following description and the drawings. An embodimentexample of the invention is shown in the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of part of a textile web formedas a label strip with small plates which are designed as alarm triggersand are integrated therein;

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of a prepared plate line for the textileweb used in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3-7 show schematic views of a plurality of consecutive methodsteps for producing, by weaving techniques, the textile web, shown inFIG. 1, with the plate line from FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 shows a schematic enlarged view of a partial section through thetextile machine along section line VIII--VIII from FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment example of the plate line 10 mentioned above.In the present case, this embodiment example is formed of a continuousstrip 11 to which are fastened the above-mentioned plates 20 at adefined distance 12 from one another. Thus, this strip 11 is acontinuous support or carrier 11 on which the small plates 20 arefastened in a precursor process by gluing, welding, clamping or thelike.

As an alternative to the production of a plate line 10 of this kind,carrier portions 13 could be used in the intervening region 12 betweenthe two small plates 20, each end of this portion 13 being fastened toconsecutive small plates 20. In this case, it would also be possible forthe small plates 20 on the one hand and the carrier portions 13extending between these small plates 20 on the other hand to be producedin one piece. The plate line 10 could then be produced by punchingand/or longitudinal profiling as a continuous configuration withalternately arranged carrier portions 13 on the one hand and smallplates 20 on the other hand. This one-piece production is useful, forexample, when curtain stiffening rods which are generally made ofplastic are to be used as small plates.

The continuous carrier 11 or the carrier portions 13 can be configuredas a sheet or thread. As a rule, the carrier 11 lies in the longitudinalaxis of the plate line 10, but the small plates 20 could also beconnected by a plurality of parallel carriers 11. It is advantageous forthe rotation of the small plates in the textile machine, as will bediscussed hereinafter, to use two carriers 11 arranged at a distancefrom one another laterally. In every case, it is critical for theinvention to obtain a plate line 10 with a linear arrangement of aplurality of small plates 20 which are arranged at a defined distancefrom one another. This plate line 10 is now used like a thread elementin a textile machine which, along with the other usual thread elements,serves to produce a textile web 30. A textile web 30 of the this kindcan have one ply or can be two-ply in some areas. The textile machinecan be a weaving loom or knitting machine, for example.

In the embodiment example shown in FIG. 1, a woven label strip serves asa textile web. This label strip 30 is produced continuously withalternating two-ply web regions 32 and one-ply intermediate web pieces31. The small plates 20' are integrated by weaving techniques into thetwo-ply web regions 32 in a parallel layer relative to the web planeand, in the present embodiment example, are "alarm triggers" which werementioned above and which make up part of a security system formerchandise. In accordance with its labeling function, the label strip30 is provided with graphic and/or alphanumeric information 33 which canbe woven in or printed on subsequently. As is conventional in labels,this information 33 includes the name of the merchandise, instructionsfor its use and cleaning and/or composition of the merchandise and itsprovenance. The finished label strip 30 shown in FIG. 1 which has beenoutfitted with the alarm triggers 20 in the manner described above isdivided into individual label portions 34 by cutting along the cuttinglocations 21 indicated by dash-dot lines in FIG. 1. These individuallabel portions 34 are then fastened to the respective merchandise whichis to be safeguarded against theft. The small plates 20' functioning asalarm triggers contain appropriate elements such as electric coils andelectric capacitors which cooperate with detectors that are tuned tothese elements and set off alarms when the labeled merchandise entersthe area of the detectors.

FIGS. 3 to 7 show different method steps for producing such acombination of small plates 20, 20' and the textile web 30 on a weavingmachine 22. In this case, the plate line 10 is introduced in the weavingmachine 22 as a kind of warp thread and cooperates in a mannerconsistent with weaving technique with the rest of the thread elementssuch as the warp threads 14 and weft threads which are introduced in thewoven fabric by the weft insertion means 15 illustrated in FIGS. 3 to 7.The plate line 10 is worked in as a "warp thread" in the runningdirection of the textile web 30. The warp threads 14 are controlled bythread control elements such as the indicated heddles 16 which,depending on the weaving program, produce a shed 17 in which the weftinsertion means 15 move. The decisive tying together of the respectivethread elements formed of the weft, warp 14 and plate line 10 iseffected at that weaving location of the machine 22 designated byreference number 23. In that location, the transversely extending picksor weft threads of the weft insertion means 15 are beaten up by a reed24. In the present instance, a self-contained reed 24 is used. However,instead of this, an open reed or the like could also be used for beatingup the inserted filling threads at the weaving location 23.

FIG. 1 shows a first working phase in the production of the textile web30. The above-mentioned two-ply web region 32 has just been produced atweaving location 23, namely as a pocket 25 opening toward weavinglocation 23. The carrier 11 of the plate line 10 extends freely in theinterior of the pocket 25 between the two pocket plies 18, 19. Thecarrier 11 projects out of the pocket opening 26. In this work phase,the small plate 20 of the plate line 10 is located, as viewed in theforward feed direction 27 of the woven textile web 30, just before theworking area of the reed 24 which is shown in its rearmost reversingpoint. The pocket 25 has been produced with a sufficient pocket lengthsuch that the small plate 20 can subsequently be received in theinterior as will be explained with reference to FIG. 6. In order toproduce the two pocket plies 18, 19, a double shed is formed, as shownin FIG. 3, in the region of the two-ply web area 32. In this doubleshed, the warp threads 14 lie not only in an upper shed and in a lowershed, but also in a center shed, not shown, in which the plate line 10with its carrier 11 is also located in the present case. In the interestof simplicity, this is not shown in FIG. 3. In accordance with thedouble shed formed in this way, two weft insertion devices 15 can beintroduced simultaneously as illustrated in FIG. 3. One of these weftinsertion devices 15 forms the upper textile ply 18 of the pocket 25while the other forms the lower textile ply 19 of the pocket 25.

In the single-ply web piece 31 in front of the pocket 25, the plate line10 with its carrier 11 can be worked into the woven fabric. However, thecarrier 11 has a float 28 at least in the pocket region. This floatingpart 28 of the carrier 11, which is already shown in FIG. 3, ispreferably provided in the transition between the one-ply web region 31and two-ply web region 32. However, the float 28 can also extend at itsexit point at one pocket 25 to the preceding pocket.

Associated with this floating carrier piece 28 are pulling means 29operating in cooperation with the rest of the working means of thetextile machine 22. When the weaving of the still open pocket 25 iscompleted, the pulling means 29 which can be formed, for instance, bythe hook shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, engage in the floating piece 28 andpull it to form a kind of loop 35. While one end of this loop 35 isfixed in the single-ply web piece or at the preceding pocket, the otherloop end which extends farther into the interior of the pocket 25 can bedrawn through. When the pulling means 29 are moved in the direction ofthe pulling movement indicated by arrow 36 in FIG. 4, the carrier 11 isdrawn increasingly into the interior of the pocket and the small plate20 moves in the direction of the pocket opening 26 as indicated by arrow37 in FIG. 4 showing the push direction.

FIG. 4 shows the position of the plane of the textile web 30 by thedash-dot line 38 in FIG. 4. This is shown again in the enlargedsectional view in FIG. 8 which is a schematic enlarged view of part ofthe reed 24 with a plurality of reed wires or reed dents 39. After theloop 35 is pulled 36, the small plate 20 is located in the region of thereed 24, as is illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 8. In this region at thelatest, but preferably prior to this in the region of the thread controlmeans 16, the small plate 20, with reference to its plane 40 indicatedin dash-dot lines in FIG. 8, extends substantially vertically relativeto the textile web plane 38. Thus, the small plate 20 is "upended" andeasily fits between the warp threads, the heddles of the thread controlmeans, and the reed dents 39 shown in FIG. 8. Guiding means can beprovided for this vertical guiding of the small plates 20. Surfaces,guide rails or the like are suitable for this purpose.

No further working movement of the reed 24 is effected while the pullingmeans 29 are being pulled in the direction of arrow 36. This can beaccomplished by interrupting the weaving of the textile machine 22 or inthat the pulling movement 36 indicated in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 is carriedout so quickly that the reed 24 moves only a little during this periodof time. In the latter case, it is not necessary to interrupt theweaving. In the next work phase shown in FIG. 5, the loop 35 has alreadybeen pulled out so far by the pulling means 29 that the small plate 20is located in the region of the weft insertion means 15.

As is shown in FIG. 5, it is critical that the small plate be moved outof the vertical position 20 shown in FIGS. 4 and 8 in the rotatingdirection indicated by arrow 41 into a substantially horizontal position20' shown in FIG. 5 as the pushing in movement 37 takes place. This isalso shown in dash-dot lines in FIG. 8, where the rotation which is tobe effected at the other side beyond the reed dents 39 is likewiseindicated. Guiding means can be used for this rotation 41. It would alsobe possible to carry out this function by the weft insertion means 15.While this small plate is situated in its horizontal position 20', thenext small plate which is located at a distance axially therefrom isstill in the vertical position 20 as shown in FIG. 5. The carrier 11 issufficiently flexible to enable torsion in the rotating directionindicated by arrow 41 in the carrier portion 13 lying therebetween. Thelength of the carrier portion 13 can be so dimensioned that thefollowing small plate located in its vertical position 20 is alreadylocated in the region of the thread control means 16 and/or in theregion of the work movement of the reed 24.

FIG. 6 shows the end position of the pulling movement 36 of the pullingmeans 29. The push-in movement 37 of the horizontal small plate 20' isconcluded because the small plate 20' contacts the base wall of thepocket 25. The loop 35 has reached its maximum loop length. The smallplate 20' is located in the interior of the pocket between the twopocket plies 18, 19.

The weaving process now continues from FIG. 6. As can be seen from FIG.7, the two pocket plies 18, 19 are closed and the formation of asingle-ply web piece recommences, producing a pocket closure 42 shown inFIG. 7. The pocket opening 26 which is still discernible in FIG. 6 isnow closed. The small plate 20' which is positioned parallel to thetextile web plane 38 is surrounded on all sides by the two textile plies18, 19. The open pocket 25 from FIG. 6 becomes a self-enclosed capsule25' with a small plate 20' integrated therein.

When the textile machine 22 reaches the work phase shown in FIG. 7, theproduced loop 35 has achieved its purpose. The carrier 11 for the smallplates 20 or 20' can be severed at the base area of the loop 35. This isdone if the loop detracts from the appearance of the final product. Thesevering cut 43 is indicated by a dash-dot line in FIG. 7. The severedloop 35 can be removed. The loop 35 can also be removed in some otherway than by cutting it off, e.g., by melting or dissolving it. The loop35 is advisably cut off while still on the textile machine 22, but mayalso be cut off subsequently outside of the textile machine if need be.Knife devices conventional in looms such as those used to produce wovenVelours can be used to make the severing cut 43.

As was already mentioned, single-ply web portions can also be usedinstead of pockets as defined arrangement locations in a textile web 30.The small plates are then fixed in their horizontal position 20' by thecarriers 11 which are woven into the single-ply woven fabric on bothsides of the small plate 20'.

The textile web 30 need not be produced in the form of a woven strip asshown in FIG. 1. Rather, it could also be produced as a wide web ofwoven fabric which is only cut into strips subsequently. Thislongitudinal cutting of the wide fabric is advisably effected whilestill on the textile machine 22. A textile web to be produced as a wideweb thus has a plurality of adjacent locations for arranging the smallplates 20', e.g., in the form of the pockets 25 which were mentionedabove. They are simultaneously produced adjacent to one another in thetextile machine. A plate line 10 is fashioned at each of these arranginglocations. At the completion of the above-mentioned weaving processaccording to FIG. 7, a wide woven fabric with a plurality of adjacentsmall plates 201 is obtained. This wide woven web is then cut along itslength between two adjacent pockets 25 in a subsequent method step shownin FIG. 7 as was already mentioned, resulting in a group of web strips.Knives, heated blades or wires, or ultrasonic tools can be used to cutalong the length in this way. The result is the label strip shown, forexample, in FIG. 1 when pockets are used as locations for arranging thesmall plates 20'. These web strips need then only be divided intoindividual portions 34 by transverse cuts 21 as was mentioned withreference to the label strip 30 shown in FIG. 1.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

10 small plate line, first thread element of 32

11 strip, carrier

12 spacing between 20

13 carrier portion between 20

14 warp thread, second thread element

15 weft insertion means for third thread element

16 heddle, thread control means

17 shed produced from 14

18 upper textile ply of 25 or 32

19 lower textile ply of 25 or 32

20 small plate (in vertical position), alarm trigger

20' horizontal position of 20

21 cutting location in 30 (FIG. 1)

22 textile machine, weaving machine

23 weaving location of 22, thread tying location

24 reed of 22

25 pocket in 30

25' closed pocket, capsule, location for arranging 20'

26 pocket opening of 25

27 forward feed direction of 30, longitudinal direction of web

28 floating piece of 11

29 pulling means for 35

30 textile web, woven label strip

31 single-ply intermediate web piece

32 double-ply web region of 30

33 alphanumeric data in 30

34 portion of 30, individual label

35 loop from 11 (FIGS. 4 to 6)

36 arrow indicating pulling movement of 29

37 arrow showing pushing in movement of 20 or 20'

38 plane of textile web

39 reed dent of 24

40 small plate plane of 20

41 arrow showing rotation of 20 into 20' (FIGS. 5 and 8)

42 pocket closure in 25'

43 severing cut line for 35 (FIG. 7)

I claim:
 1. A method of arranging flat plate-like components at aprepared arrangement location within a textile web of a textile machine,said flat plate-like components connected by a flexible carrier at afixed distance from each other so as to form a linear arrangement offlat plate-like components, said method comprising the stepsof:providing said linear arrangement of flat plate-like components to athread tying location on a textile machine along a longitudinal axis;working said carrier into said textile web so that part of the carrieremerges from said prepared arrangement location of said textile web in afree-floating manner to form a free-floating loop portion, and whereinsaid plate is positioned at a distance upstream of the thread tyinglocation on the textile machine; pulling said free floating loop portionso that said plate passes through the thread tying location of thetextile machine and is placed at the prepared arrangement locationwithin the textile web; and securing said plate in said preparedarrangement location in the textile web by tying said preparedarrangement location.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein saidflexible carrier is a continuous strip and said plate-like componentsare fastened onto said continuous strip at a fixed distance from eachother.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said flexible carrieris pulled along a linear axis when said free-floating loop portion ispulled.
 4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising theadditional step of:removing said free-floating loop portion from saidtextile web after said securing step.
 5. The method according to claim1, wherein said textile web comprises first and second plies, saidmethod further comprising the additional step, before said providingstep, of:producing a pocket in the textile web so as to be open towardthe thread tying location.
 6. The method according to claim 5, whereinsaid first and second plies of said textile web are single plyintermediate web pieces.
 7. The method according to claim 5, whereinsaid floating carrier portion is introduced at the intersection of saidpocket and said textile web.
 8. The method according to claim 1, whereinsaid textile web defines a web axis, said method comprising theadditional step, before said providing step, of:rotating said verticallyextending plate about its axis so that said plate extends parallel tosaid web axis.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein saidvertically extending plate is rotated in said thread tying location. 10.The method according to claim 8, wherein said plate is rotated by guidesurfaces.
 11. The method according to claim 8, wherein said plate isrotated by weft needles.
 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein aplurality of arrangement locations for the plate-like components areproduced adjacent to one another in the textile web at thread tyinglocation, and wherein the linear arrangement is worked in as a threadelement at each of the arrangement locations, and wherein the textileweb is cut along its length between two adjoining arrangement locationsto form a group of web strips, and wherein the web strip is dividedbetween two small plates arranged thereon and associated with the samelinear arrangement to form individual web strip portions.